Here's a weird one! I was diving KVI and Alki Fishing Reef on Saturday, and noticed my Oceanic pressure gauge had water in it! Didn't seem to harm the reading needle, and was fully functional, but nevertheless, there's water where water should not be inside the thing.

The whole gauge is enclosed in a console and protected, and there are no obvious cracks in the face.

Could the two little O-rings that sit on either end of the long pin tube thingie be the culprit? Bad O-ring? Or is water leaking in another way, perhaps from the pressure relief valve on the backside of the gauge?

I imagine now that it's had saltwater inside of it, I should probably scrap the whole thing and get a new one....No way to really rinse it out with fresh water.

Anyone else have this happen or know what could have caused it? The amount of water that's in there now was nothing compared to what was in it when I was diving. Some must have leaked back out? And then there's the whole pressure factor making the air bubble smaller at depth...Sorry for the blurry photo - part of that's me, part of it is the contact paper I put on the gauge face to protect it.

There's usually a large oring that seals the clear (plastic or glass) face to the body. Those are the prime failure points. In theory you can disassemble a glass&brass one, clean out the insides and replace that oring. But nobody ever does because spgs are cheap and it would take hours and special tools just to get it apart. And good luck finding a tiny custom oring. The plastic ones are pretty much goners. In both cases the bourdon tube is copper and will eventually corrode.

That one has seen better days and for ~$50 replacing it is a good idea.

Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.

If I understand you correctly. It functions correctly on the inside except it has water. The leak has nothing to do with the pressure side of the gauge. It sounds like the leak is on the ambient side of the gauge. More than likely there's a crack or the plug fell out. Either way it looks like a paperweight.

Could the two little O-rings that sit on either end of the long pin tube thingie be the culprit?

The long pin is called a spindle (at least that's what I've been told). If those O-rings were bad, you would see champagne bubbles coming out. Those O-rings can't fill your gauge with water. There is a chance that there is a over pressure relief plug on the back of the gauge; a failure there can certainly cause it to leak.

On a personal note, if you have a D-ring on your kit on your left side, may I suggest taking this opportunity to switching to a brass/glass gauge and attaching a bolt snap to fasten your gauge to the D-ring.